Woman takes up cause against tree-cutting

Longtime Memorial Drive resident Eleanor Morse dreads seeing acres of woods, the hallmark signature of her neighborhood, turned into a world of steel and concrete.

Having witnessed patch after patch of gigantic trees chopped down to make way for development during her more than 20 years in the area, Morse is faced with the loss of more trees to a planned retail strip near her neighborhood.

So she is urging officials of the city of Houston, Harris County and environmentalist groups to join her lone crusade to salvage what she describes as a "haven untouched by man."

Hunington Properties Inc., a Houston-based shopping center developer, purchased about two acres of land at 5500 Memorial Drive at Reinicke from Memorial Terrace Joint Ventures, for the development of a 30,000 square-foot retail center.

It is part of a wooded expanse from Memorial Drive all the way south to Buffalo Bayou.

The sighting of a streetside sign announcing the planned development so chilled Morse in July that she immediately launched a one-woman campaign to minimize the forthcoming destruction of her home-front forest.

"This is a deplorable use of land," said Morse. "Clearing it for a shopping center is really an affront to us all, because this property holds so much potential. We are talking about flood control and air pollution, and yet we keep seeing significant amount of trees knocked down to accommodate development."

"Aesthetically, this forested land is irreplacable," she told them. "We have surrounded ourselves with roads and buildings and have squeezed homes on land where there are now no lawns or valuable shade trees. This green haven is a welcome visual respite from the relentless overbuilding along the Memorial corridor, and it symbolizes Houston's natural treasure."

In her letter to the county Flood Control District, Morse said the land along Buffalo Bayou is the only area remaining with the potential to absorb significant water from heavy rain.

Removing the trees and converting this area into concrete would accelerate the erosion on the bayou banks and pose a danger for residents south of Memorial Drive and those who rent space in the proposed shopping strip, she said.

After Keller and Sanchez forwarded her letters to the city's Planning and Development Department, Robert Litke, planning's director, replied that the city had no information about development plans because the property owner had not filed for building permits.

"The city ordinances protect trees of a specified species and size in the street and building lines adjacent to the street," said Litke. However, there is no protection for trees on the interior portion of the site, he said.

If trees are felled in violation of city ordinances, developers will be required to replant trees, said Litke. However, he said replanted trees are usually not of the same size as the trees that are removed.

Morse said Sandy Aron, Hunington's coordinating developer for the planned shopping center, rejected her request for a dialogue.

Aron also refused to meet with representatives of TreeScape program, whom Morse had asked to intervene, said Carla Wyatt, TreeScape coordinator.

"It works to help developers obtain their construction goals while maintaining green space and defraying public concerns." said Wyatt.

Wyatt said she and T. J. Marks of the Houston Forestry Department went to the site and found the property Aron purchased contains a large number of significant trees, which could be lost to his development.

The trees can boost the property value and benefit the neighborhood aesthetically, said Wyatt, who urged Aron to "sensitively" create his development.

"Mr. Aron is not willing to allow us to help him with the situation there," said Wyatt. "But he has to be mindful of the people living there."

"He is not neighborly," said Morse. "He doesn't appreciate the land he wants to destroy and is indifferent to the concerns of those who live in this area."

Aron, who was quoted as saying he was conquering the "last front-row seat on Memorial," refused to be interviewed for this report.

Morse said she was frustrated by the lack of response from the community, though she had delivered letters to numerous civic clubs of adjacent subdivisions alerting them of the imminent fate of the trees.

"The apathy is incredible, but I'm not going to give up even though I feel like a one-man band," she said.

But she said a group of residents from the nearby Crestwood subdivision and the Sierra Club are joining her alliance.

"The trees at this site have been at the center of concern for the last couple of months," said Litke. "Both the private and public sectors have reached out to the property owner advising them of the city's tree ordinances."

"We have received a lot of phone calls from people who said they were so concerned about this wonderful lot," said Barrett.

Barrett said there is an urgency to protect the city's urban forest.

"Houston doesn't have a whole lot of protection of existing trees except for street trees," she said. "That's why we see beautiful green areas turn into concrete all the time."

Morse said her forested neighborhood has undergone significant redevelopment over time, which resulted in the disappearance of a "park-like atmosphere" with the removal of large amount of mature trees.

"I'm not against Mr. Aron's development," said Morse. "But we hope he is sensitive to the people and the environment in the community and uses his land in a responsible and ecologically appropriate manner."